"You know how you said you were dating someone else?" Victoria finally asked. "Madison, I think you said?"
Taylor nodded. "Yeah, what about her?"
"Well, I was just wondering... How do you deal with telling her, about... us." Victoria waved her free hand vaguely between the two of them.
Taylor opened her mouth to respond, but then paused, thinking. "Huh. I don't think we've talked about you, yet."
Victoria gave her a raised eyebrow. "You're not going to tell me that you 'forgot', are you?"
"Well, she's never really brought it up," Taylor answered with a shrug. "The last time, it didn't seem like a good time to talk about it. I just figured she'd ask when she wanted to know."
"Why would she bring it up if you haven't told her? How would she even know to ask?" Victoria asked, somewhat angry on behalf of a girl she didn't even know.
"I don't use cherry lip gloss, of course," was Taylor's offhand answer.
"What would cherry lip gloss have to do—" Victoria blinked. "You went on a date with her, right after you went on a date with me." It wasn't a question.
Taylor just nodded.
"You don't even try to hide it?" Victoria asked, half incredulous, despite the original purpose of the conversation.
"Why would I hide it? It's that whole open relationship thing, right? I mean, she knows about Sophia, and—"
"Sophia?" Victoria cut in.
"A girl at school. She's on the track team, and in my chemistry class. I help tutor her, and we fool around a bit," she replied, smiling slightly at some memory. "Nothing too serious, yet, but she has our backs."
Victoria frowned. "What do you mean by that?"
"Ah, well, Winslow High School," Taylor responded with a shrug, as if that was an answer unto itself. "Lots of gangs, which means lots of E88, and they aren't too nice to lesbian couples. Sophia makes sure they don't mess with me and Madison. They know better than to fuck with Sophia," Taylor explained, with a slight bit of pride.
Victoria grudginly acknowledged that with a nod. "So Sophia knows about you and Madison?"
"Yup."
"And you said Madison knows about you and Sophia?"
"Yeah. Told her about the time we were kissing in the bathroom."
"You and Sophia were kissing in the bathroom?" Victoria repeated. "And you told Madison?" Somehow the audacity of the statement made the whole thing surreal, despite her being in the same position.
Taylor nodded to both questions.
"So, you're dating me, and Madison, and Sophia?"
Taylor nodded again. Then added, "And Charlotte, sort of."
"Sort of?" The pitch of her voice getting a bit higher as the strangeness settled in.
"Well, it's more that Charlotte likes to watch me and Madison. She hasn't asked to join in or anything." The implied "yet" hung in the air.
Victoria paused as she took that in, then shook her head to clear the image. Not the time or place. "So," she corrected, "me, Madison, Sophia, and sort-of Charlotte, then?"
"Yeah. And Emma, but Emma is just... Emma."
"Emma." Victoria's flat tone conveyed disbelief that had lost the war with incredulity.
Taylor grimaced and looked away. "With Emma, it's more that I'm just trying to be friends with her again. We had a bit of a falling out, but I can stand to be in the same room together with her again, now, so it's getting better!" Taylor's smile brightened up.
"But you're not dating Emma. Right?" There was a certain pressing insistance behind that last word.
"Well, no, not right now. But she knows about Madison, and probably Sophia."
"Right. So just me, Madison, Sophia, and Charlotte — sort of. But not Emma."
"Ah, and there's—" Taylor halted as Victoria held up her hand.
"No, no. That's fine." Victoria took a calming breath. Each additional name seemed to be less about dating and more about increasing weirdness. She didn't want to know how far down that rabbit hole went. "And how many of them know about me?"
"Well... It's never really come up. The rest basically know each other because we all go to school together, but you go to Arcadia, so..." Taylor let the comment trail off, not bothering trying to fit Amy into the description since she'd been cut off when mentioning her. Plus Amy was home-schooled.
"And they all know each other at school?" Victoria shook her head. Normally one would expect that one would want to keep a certain amount of separation between partners, no matter how 'open' the relationship. But Taylor didn't seem to care. But, speaking of caring... "You never thought to bring me up? I'm not sure whether you're being considerate, or if I should be offended."
"Offended? Why would you—?"
"Well, you are dating Glory Girl, you know?" Victoria answered sardonically.
Taylor frowned. "But that's... I wouldn't do anything like that. It's too public, and that getting out could hurt you."
Victoria stared at Taylor for a moment, before shaking her head and chuckling. "So," she said, getting her bearings again, "the way you deal with open relationships is that you just... don't."
Taylor tilted her head at the redirection of the conversation, but then shrugged. "It seemed like too much hassle. My girls are mine. That's all."
"'Your' girls?" Victoria asked, eyebrow raised.
Taylor smirked, a predatory gleam coming back to her eyes as she leaned over the table, pressing well into Victoria's space. "Yes. Mine."
Victoria matched her stare and her smirk. "I see." And she did, sort of. She still wasn't sure whether she'd want to move completely into that openness with Taylor, or if she could be so completely unconcerned about the relative relations with Dean and Taylor. Either way, though...
— —
"Also," Victoria said as they left the library, "you should tell Madison about us. It's not fair to leave her in the dark like that."
"What? But—"
"If she already knows about the others, then telling her about me is only fair. Well, as long as she's not going to blab about it."
"She wouldn't do that!" Taylor scowled.
Victoria smiled. "Good. But she's probably worried, so you should do something about that."
Taylor seemed to resist the idea, but finally succumbed. "Fine, fine."
"And you're gonna tell me about any other girls you decide to date?" she added teasingly.
Taylor just rolled her eyes and stuck out her tongue.
2.8
> Success chance: 90%, 60%.
> Necessary roll: 20. Rolled: 66. Success.
> Success chance: 80%.
> Necessary roll: 20. Rolled: 31. Success.
Spoiler: Winning Votes
[] Get a little bit of relief with Madison. Madison has been a very good girl lately, and has been devoting herself even more to you, although you’re glad to see she’s keeping up with hobbies outside of you too. You need some relief, though— sexual relief— and your own hand just isn’t doing it for you. You’re not going to be able to get some alone time with Madison until the weekend, which is too far off. It’s a risk, but maybe you could get Madison to help you out during tutoring?
Rolled 66. Both thresholds successful. Action included in Charlotte interlude.
[] Invite Victoria over for the night. Okay, maybe not the whole night, but… Okay, so you’re inviting Victoria over for sex. Or kissing. Or whatever she’ll let you get away with. She won’t stay the night— her parents would raise too many questions— but who knows what could happen in those couple of hours?
Rolled 20. Action succeeded.
By GM fiat;
[] Invite Victoria over to your house, ostensibly for the purpose of getting makeup tips. Mostly, though, you just want to invite her over for dinner. It’ll be awkward with Dad there, but you’re surprisingly okay with that. And it’s a thrill to know that she’s willing to stand up her boyfriend in order to come over and have dinner with you and Dad. The more you spend time around your girls, the more you come to realize how little you understand about sex.
Before you put your plan into action, you did spend a lot of time on the computer looking up information about how to please women, and an embarrassing few sessions at the library sneaking sex-ed books under an encyclopedia so you could read them at the library table without being caught. And there’s the stash of magazines in your pillowcase you hope Dad never, ever finds, even if they’re only underwear catalogues. Naively, you’d thought you’d learned enough.
As it turns out, there’s a lot of things that most porn just doesn’t talk about. You’re lucky that you stumbled across that site on safe BDSM practices, for instance; if you hadn’t found that site, you wouldn’t have known to talk to your girls about their boundaries before having sex with them, or about what they need from you before and after. If you’d stuck just to what you’ve learned from porn sites, you probably would have just had your way with her—and that’s not how you want to treat your girls. They’re not sex dolls.
More relevantly, though, everything you’ve read has only talked about how to practice sex safely and how good sex can feel. Nothing has ever talked about what to do if you’re forced to just… stop, right when you were starting to feel really good.
It’s frustrating, because that whole experience—having Madison’s inexperienced but eager tongue darting in and out of you, while you’d played with Charlotte’s lust as she spied on the two of you, hands tangled in Madison’s hair as you’d soaked yourself in the rising lust of your two girls—that is the best sexual experience you’ve had to date, including your first time with Madison. Walking away sexually frustrated after that sucks.
You’re distracted from your rueful thoughts when the bus jolts sharply, causing your shoulder to hit the window with a loud slap. You draw in a hissing breath through your teeth, cursing the town’s council, and begrudgingly shift over a little so you’re sitting in the aisle. This late at night, the bus is less than half full anyway—nobody’s pressed for seats.
A few minutes later, you’re still grumbling to yourself as the bus comes to a stop in front of your bus stop. You unhurriedly climb out and slowly make your way home, sighing a little when you see Dad’s car in the driveway. Of course he’s home early tonight.
He greets you loudly when you open the door. “Hello, Taylor.” He’s standing in the kitchen, stirring a pot of—something, you can’t actually see what’s inside it from here. It smells kind of spicy. Curry, maybe? “How was your day?”
You pout angrily at the floor. It sucked, but if you tell him that, he’s going to ask why, and, no. “It was alright,” you grumble. “How was yours?”
He shrugs. “Nothing exciting happened,” he replies. “Igneous is making some headway, so we might be able to get a bit more traffic in soon. That’ll help.” He pauses for a moment, then turns away from the stove, snapping his fingers. “Oh, and guess what Kurt managed to find for us?”
You blink, startled. Dad normally isn’t this energetic. “What?”
“He found a store carrying those documentary DVD’s!” he says, a smile making its way across his face. Your own lips twitch in response for a moment, but your only response to that is an appreciative nod. “Do you still want to watch it with me?”
“Yes,” you reply quickly. You’re still in kind of a bad mood, but just because you’re in a bad mood doesn’t mean you should drag Dad’s mood down with you. “We could watch it tonight!”
He hesitates. “Ah, I haven’t actually bought them yet,” he admits. “I didn’t want to buy them yet, just in case. I can pick them up tomorrow after work if you want, though?”
You nod. “That’d be nice,” you reply. You’re about to say something further when your phone buzzes in your pocket. Pulling it out with a knitted brow, you open it to read the text. It’s from Victoria.
“u doin good w/ ur makeup? need me 2 cum round?”
You can’t help but scowl down at your phone. Damn it. She can text perfectly fine—you’ve seen her do it before. She just likes to tease you by abusing grammar. Still, you hesitate before responding.
You don’t need any help with your makeup—it’s going fine, and while you’re not getting it on as fast as you’d like, that’s something you think will come naturally with practice. You had a few slip-ups at first, but as long as you’re careful, it still looks fine. At the same time, though—this is Victoria’s night with her boyfriend. You wouldn’t mind getting her to spend it with you.
“Hey, Dad,” you say out loud. He’s turned back to the stove at this point, apparently disinterested in watching you stand like a clueless idiot in front of the front door. Flushing lightly at your own self-reprimand, you hurriedly step forwards, bringing yourself to the entrance to the kitchen. “Could Vicky come over for dinner today?”
He turns his head to eye you. Whatever he sees in your expression apparently convinces him, because he pushes away from the stove and moves to the fridge. “If you want her to,” he says, giving you another smile. “I can make another serving for her. Does she have any way to get here?”
Internally, you snort. Of course she does, but Dad doesn’t know that. “Yeah,” you reply evasively, “she can make her own way here. Thanks, Dad!”
Dad waves you off with a soft chuckle. “No need to thank me, Taylor. As long as we have the food, I’m happy to have any of your friends over whenever you want them here.”
You smile at him for that, stepping into the kitchen so you can give him a quick hug. “Thanks, Dad!” you say cheerily before turning and heading up to your room, your bad mood mostly dissipated as you text Victoria a quick confirmation.
For the next few minutes, you rush around your room, making sure everything is neat and organized. There’s not much mess, but your pillows are askew, and you’d thrown this morning’s clothes on your desk chair when you’d changed to go running, rather than throwing them in the clothes basket like you normally would. Oops. Once that’s done and your room is back up to your standards, you head back down and to the hall, where you try to look casual as you wait for her to arrive.
